


Chicken Soup

by Sookiestark



Series: He Who Tastes Love Never Dines Alone [4]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin
Genre: Chicken Soup, Comfort Food, Food, Food as a Metaphor for Love, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-24 06:46:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,655
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18566101
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sookiestark/pseuds/Sookiestark
Summary: A brief glimpse of Rhaena Targaryen and Maegor Towers in Harrenhal with soup.





	Chicken Soup

The rhythmic sound of the knife hitting the board, cutting through the vegetables, was its own kind of melody. Sometimes, Maegor would close his eyes and smell the vegetables being cut, the chicken cooking, the bread cooling and think he might be the luckiest man alive. He hadn't always thought that. Not long ago, he had thought he was miserable, a sick orphaned impoverished boy, but now he felt differently. Now, he felt there was more. 

It had all begun with the Queen and her deciding to make chicken soup. Now, the Queen made her delicious soup once a week in the kitchens at Harennhal. But the first time when Sue, his cook, came to tell him the Queen was cutting soup vegetables, Maegor Towers had rushed to stop the Queen from debasing herself.

Arriving in the kitchen, he had found her in her fine, red, riding dress with an old apron tied around it. Maegor had been struck how strange she looked in the kitchen, like a cat in a carriage or a dog riding a horse. The other thing he had been struck by was how beautiful Queen Rhaena was. Even in her forties, she might be the prettiest woman he had ever seen. 

Lord Maegor Towers had protested, begging her to not cook in the kitchen.

The Queen had looked at him like he was a strange bug or a trained monkey. Without giving him a second glance, she had spoken, continuing to chop the vegetables for the stock. “My Lord, it is no inconvenience. You are my host and ill. It is as I said, the soup will heal you and make you strong. It is no bother. As I told you before, my Lord Towers, I never do anything I do not wish to. Now, leave me to make it.”

However, he still went to protest every week and persuade her not to cook in the kitchens. Every week, the Queen continued to do it. Eventually, Maegor stopped protesting. Instead, he would pull up a chair and watch her quietly. She stopped asking him to leave and he found he liked watching her make the soup. 

Maegor had not known his mother but he wondered if she would have made soup in the kitchen as the Queen did. 

Truth be told, most of the chopping was done by the Queen’s kitchen staff. She had three kitchen staff but they always saved her a few of the vegetables to be cut. She oversaw the process with a critical eye from choosing the chicken to the way the broth was made. At first, the head cook in Rhaena’s household was horrified that her lady wanted to cook soup for the orphaned and penniless boy-lord of Harrenhal. The fact he was named after her hated and dead uncle-husband, King Maegor, only added to the insult.

But whatever Queen Rhaena wanted, she did. Her household staff knew better than to question her 

Over the months, once a week, Maegor would be in the kitchens watching the Queen chop carrots, celery, turnips, onions, leeks, potatoes to make a soup. Her hands were strong and capable even if they were unused to manual labor. They were used to riding horses and dragons and what was a kitchen knife compared to Dreamfyre.

When it was finished, one of the maids would serve him a bowl. Sometimes, the Queen would watch him eat it. Sometimes, she would not. Rarely, she would sit across from him at the small table in the room where he ate and have a bowl herself. When she did this, Maegor did not speak with her. Gradually, Queen Rhaena came to sit more and more frequently. Maegor enjoyed the company of having someone to dine with. 

Maegor had lived by himself since he was a small child. His brothers had died fighting in the wars for King Maegor. His father had died from an illness when he was nine. When he was twelve, the new King, Jaehaerys had asked him if he would host his sister who did not want to return to Dragonstone. Jaehaerys understood that there would be a burden to supporting a Queen but he would increase the holdings of Harrenhal so that they could levy funds and food to support Queen Rhaena’s retinue, including her dragon.

Maegor had heard of the Queen and her life of tragedy, losing her first husband, her daughter, her difficult marriage to her second marriage, the murder of all her companions, as well as her third husband's suicide. He was glad to help the King and allow the Queen to reside in the castle. After all, there was plenty of space at Harrenhal and he might never even see the Queen. Also, Maegor Towers was in no position to deny his King anything. 

So, Queen Rhaena came to Harrenhal and took up residence in the Widow’s Tower. For the first six months, Maegor rarely saw the Queen. But Harrenhal was a changed place.

With the Queen came a dragon, a dozen horses, a pack of hunting dogs, several large cats, as well as an entire household staff, including a Maester, a Septa, a Septon, a whole band of musicians, and a half a dozen of ladies, as well as soldiers, and servants. Harrenhal seemed fuller than he had ever known or ever remembered it. Immediately, they began to clean and repair Harrenhal. There was a blacksmith in the stable and stable boys and, for once, fresh water in the baths. There was a kitchen garden and cows to milk in the barns. There was the noise of a busy yard, full of conversation and hammers fixing wagons and roofs. For once, Harrenhal did not seem so haunted or so lonely.

Maegor had always been sickly. His father had died from a cough and he seemed to have the same condition. It had prohibited him from practicing in the yard or riding horses or running. If he over-exerted himself, he would have a coughing fit where sometimes he could not breathe. One night, several months after the Queen arrived at Harrehal, Maegor was having an especially loud fit. His cook, and nurse when he was ill, Sue, was trying to help him, but all the things that normally worked had not stopped the cough. Sue had asked if she could wake the Queen’s Maester but he did not want to bother the man. After all, he was the Queen’s Maester, not Harrenhal’s. He wondered if it was the cold because he had not done anything to aggravate the cough. There was never enough money to keep a single tower warm. With that extra income from the King, they had been able to have meat twice a week and have wood more than peat, but still, there was always a chill in his tower. 

His fit must have been bad. Later, he realized his coughing probably woke the whole castle. However, in the midst of it, Maegor could not remember much of it. One minute, Maegor was coughing blood and Sue trying to make his tea. Like a mouse, she scurried around in the dark. Then, Queen Rhaena was in the doorway unmoving. At first, the silver of her shape made him think she was a ghost. There she stood unmoving with a look of arrogance and disdain. She never moved just watched them. Eventually, the tea was finished and the coughing subsided. At some point, Queen Rhaena left. Maegor thought to apologize if he bothered her but he was weary and fell asleep.

The next morning the Queen sent her Maester to Maegor’s room to check him. A serving boy brought eucalyptus and mint to hang from the canopy and lady’s mantle for the rushes on the floor. Sue came up to tell him that another boy came from the Queen’s kitchens with a box of herbs, a box of vegetables with a leg of mutton to Maegor’s kitchen as a gift. It was not until the next week that he had the strength to go to her and thank her. He found her in the stables, brushing her horses. 

He cleared his voice so that she would look at him, “Your Grace, I am sorry to have bothered you the other night. My fits are sometimes bad. I cannot stop the coughing. I did not mean to wake you.”

 

"No need to apologize, my Lord. I know what you need... Some soup. I will make some for you on the morrow. It will clear the cough up.” 

"No, My Queen, I could not. I would not inconvenience you any more than I already have. I feel I have…” 

She interrupted him, “Maegor, don't call me your Queen. There is another Queen, a true one, my sister, and the title never suited me. Not after my brother, Aegon died. Also, another thing, do not tell me what to do. It does not suit me and I will not listen. It is better to save your breath.” 

So, the soup-making began this way. The next day, after several hours of cooking in a pot, a maid of Queen Rhaena's served him a bowl of chicken broth with garlic, carrots, celery, turnips, and leeks while the Queen watched. He had eaten two bowls of the delicious stew and two pieces of brown bread. It tasted hearty and warm. He felt nourished and satisfied. 

Maegor looked up at her after the second bowl and remembered his manners. “Your Grace, thank you. It was delicious.”

Her face was softer than he had ever seen and still, she looked like stone. Queen Rhaena spoke, “My friend, Lady Sam, would make this. Her mother, Lady Stokeworth taught her. Whenever anyone was sick, Sam would make it. It always made me feel better. I am glad you enjoyed it, Lord Towers. ”

 

So began, their dinners once a week over a bowl of soup.


End file.
